


The Shadows in the Past

by beckettlovescastlealways



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Self-Destruction, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27382687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beckettlovescastlealways/pseuds/beckettlovescastlealways
Summary: Brennan, when hurt, retreats into herself, isolating herself even to the point of self destructive behaviors. Making matters worse is a killer forcing the team to face the past. The good guys always catch their man but this time there's a potential cost to it that may be too much to pay. Rewrite of Come Wake me Up, many changes to it and season 6 though.
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

The hours at the Jeffersonian made having a social life hell. It was hard to find someone understanding enough about their crazy hours and the repeated dropping everything the moment there’s a body let alone being okay with the inherently morbid nature of their job. Add that to having a teenager perhaps that’s why Cam was willing to go on a date with a guy from a dating app.

As Nick continues to talk about his ‘bitch of an ex’ who apparently cheated on him and he’s clearly not over. Cam looks down at her phone hoping to get a call about a body despite having a bit of guilt about the fact she wants someone to have died she’d accept anything over this migraine she’s getting listening to him go on. 

She half heartedly looks around the bar, it’s certainly more modern than her usual place of the Founding Fathers, it was more modern and certainly more of a place for dates and hookups. She didn’t mind it too bad but her date is making it difficult to enjoy what atmosphere there was.

Suddenly Nick’s phone rings “I’m sorry I really have to take this” he says standing and walking to the other side of the bar to answer the call. The pathologist debates using the excuse to take her leave and officially chuck this date up to a fail.

As she stands to leave she hears a familiar voice and turns to look, sure enough it’s Dr Brennan. The anthropologist is sitting at one of the booths against the wall alone. Cam debates going over there as her out or just leaving, clearly the other woman was wanting to be alone if she was here instead of her usual haunts, however something drew her to go talk to her subordinate.

“Dr. Brennan,” she says standing by the booth, hesitant to sit without permission.

“Hey Dr. Saroyan,” Brennan smiles slightly, “What’re you doing here?” Her question is slurred heavily as she motions for Cam to sit sloppily waving for her to sit.

“Bad date.” Cam says wryly, looking at the table she can see Brennan is definitely several sheets to the wind, she is also sure that the drinking is probably a result of Booth and Hannah’s most recent get away “How about you?”

“My agent wanted me to meet with a guy about the movie,” she offers, seeming to slightly sway even in her seat “They left,” she adds quickly.

“How ya feeling Brennan?” Cam cuts to the chase as Brennan motions one of the waitresses for another drink. Cam looks half heartedly back at the table her and Nick had been at, seems he got the hint and left after his call.

“I’m fine Cam,” Brennan slurs sternly. She looks down at her most recent drink with a bitter laugh “I’m always fine.” Before downing the drink quickly in one swallow, “I should go, have a good night Dr. Saroyan.”

Cam bites her lip as she watches the anthropologist leave debating how much she should worry about her friend. The small cracks in Brennan’s carefully crafted facade had been getting bigger ever since her return from Maluku. Usually Booth would be the first to notice her long nights, and her new habit of skipping lunch unless someone all but forced her to eat, however the agent apparently hasn’t so the Squints have been attempting to as much as she’ll let them. The way Cam saw it was Dr. Brennan was in a talespin and she wasn’t sure where the good doctor would end up when it’s done. Realizing that she probably wouldn’t be able to help much until Brennan is open to it she sighs and heads home, Michelle is probably expecting her.

-0-0-0-0-

Sweets has always been into people watching. Sometimes just sitting back and watching people can tell you more about them than anyone realizes. That habit is how he knows for certain something is very wrong with his friend, because that’s definitely what Dr. Brennan is to him even if he’s uncertain she’d call him that. However how poorly she’s coping since everyone has returned has made him worried enough to be bold. However if you asked him why he was entering the lab with some Chinese take out he was just looking for a friend to eat with.

He follows the rather loud rap music to her office, despite the late hour she’s drinking coffee and the music is almost loud enough in here to make speaking difficult. He knocks before entering “Dr. Brennan?” She snaps up surprised, quickly turning off the music, he raises one of the containers of food to her, “Want some, it’s Chinese,” he offers with a smile.

“I don’t need a shrink right now, Sweets,” her eyes narrow slightly as if trying to read him like her bones, “If this is about Cam the other night or Booth or…”

He cuts her off “No shrinky tricks, just dinner.” He offers silently wondering what happened with Cam that was enough to supersede Booth in the list of things that Brennan doesn’t want to talk about. However the question is pushed back as Brennan motions for him to sit, he does as she sits on the other side of the couch, seeming to deflate slightly as she’s able to relax around her friend.

“I got a cat,” he breaks the silence as he grasps for topics to bring up to the anthropologist, “Lucky, she’s only a bit older than a kitten but only has 3 legs, so the shelter was having trouble with getting her a home, she’s a sweetheart,” He sighs, “it’s nice on lonely nights.”

Brennan nods “We had pets before my parents left.”

“How’s the new book going?” Sweets motions to the computer certain she’s working on it.

“My publisher isn’t happy,” Brennan takes a bite, of the food, “I think this should be the last Reichs novel. I have other ideas but I want to end this series. She thinks they should keep going.”

“Oh?” Sweets tilts his head, “That’d be a change, what’d that make, what 10, 12? A good series length.”

“13,” Brennan corrects, “I’ve been doing two or three a year since the second one.” She sighs shifting slightly again, fidgeting slightly with her dolphin ring, “I have Kathy’s death scene ready, I just need the okay contract wise.”

Sweets debates bringing up the psychology of killing a character so obviously based on herself but instead lets the matter drop for once. “How’s Booth been? I haven’t seen him much outside cases.”

“It makes sense he’s been with Hannah,” Brennan takes a bite, “He let Parker meet her, he loves her.”

Sweets ignores the slightly off sound in her matter of fact tone, “Yeah I suppose so.” He nods “We haven’t had any cases in weeks,” he notes, “It’s weird.”

“It’s good,” Brennan shrugs, “No cases is good. No one’s died horribly.” She puts the food down, “The floods down in Arkansas are gonna have a lot of graves disturbed, Homeland Security will probably request my presence for a few weeks.”

Sweets nods, “Have you pointed that out to anyone?”

“Cam’s got the request.” Brennan shrugs, “It’s up to her to approve it. It’d help a lot of families if I went down.”

“And the others?”

“I’d take a few of the Squinterns with me, it’d be a good learning experience for them. And Angela and Hodgins are used to these trips for me, I often work with FEMA after these types of events, or at least used to before the FBI took up so much of my time.”

“And Booth?” Sweets presses despite his better judgement.

Her eyes harden if only slightly, “My partnership with Booth shouldn’t stop these people from getting back to their proper resting place. Just because he thinks more recent murders matter more doesn’t mean I have to subscribe to the same beliefs.”

Sweets nods, “You’re right,” he looks at the clock, it’s nearly eleven, “I should get going, let you keep working.”

Brennan agrees quickly, moving back to her desk and her next chapter, “Yes, then I’ll be heading home soon.” Sweets makes a note to as Dr. Saroyan what happened with Brennan the other night, the anthropologist’s walls were too high up to get answers from right now. As he’s leaving the lab she calls at his back, “Sweets,” she seems to hesitate for a second, “Thanks for dinner and talking,” she looks down seeming to debate with herself in a way he rarely sees her do, “Maybe I’ll look into getting a cat.”

He smiles back at her, “Anytime, Dr. Brennan.” He leaves his worries from the last few weeks confirmed, the anthropologist was feeling separated from the rest of the team, and she was lonely. He’ll have to help with that. His phone rings, it’s Daisy, he’ll figure it out later he decides answering the call.

-0-0-0-0-

Hodgins very rarely is the first into the lab. Cam is sometimes, starting autopsies or finishing paperwork. Brennan often is, waiting for bones to whisper their secrets and truths to her as they do. But on occasion he wakes before the sun and leaves the house before Angela, getting there before most every tech and doctor in the lab. Today seems like one of those days when he enters the nearly silent Jeffersonian.

However his silent experiment time without anyone to stop him is stopped as soon as it’s started by a dim light on in Dr. Brennan’s office. He drops off his bag at his desk keeping a tight hold on his coffee mug as the sun begins trickling through the sky light.

Not to his surprise his boss is asleep at her computer, it’s not unknown that Dr. B has atrocious hours and for her to work herself to exhaustion. Frowning slightly as he’s certain this isn’t even the first time this week she has he goes up to the lounge, grabbing coffee and a pastry before going back to Brennan’s office, putting both down on her desk and when that doesn’t snap her awake as it usually does he gently puts his hand on her shoulder, “Morning Dr. Brennan,” she flinches awake, grabbing his wrist perhaps a bit too tightly but seems to quickly realize who it is.

“Hodgins?” She groans slightly, “What time is it?” She’s slower to fully wake up than usual rubbing her head like she’s in pain.

“About 7,” he frowns slightly, “You okay Dr. B?”

“Just a headache,” she shakes him off, “I’m fine.”

“Okay… if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure Hodgins, drop it.” She grabs the coffee he put on her desk, “Just tired.”

Hodgins nods once, pushing will get him nowhere, he turns to leave.

Without particularly meaning to, he tracks the anthropologist through the day, noticing she doesn’t stop working for lunch, snaps at a mistake from Clark, and is still working when he takes his leave for the evening. He debates calling her out on her clear falling back into old habits that had become less pronounced as Booth had dragged her out of the lab. 

When he mentions it to Angela though she just shakes her head “She’s obviously heartbroken Honey, I’ll talk to her tomorrow but she’ll be fine eventually.” He can’t say she’s wrong as that’s as good of reason as any, so he resolved to keep watching and take Booth’s role as much as possible but otherwise let it sort itself out.

-0-0-0-0-

When Brennan isn’t in the lab the next day when lunch roles around Angela doesn’t have a hard time finding her. The gym’s punching bag is being pounded time and again by her friend though maybe it’s slightly too hard, and maybeit’s a little too easy to see her bones where muscles don’t cover? She shakes her head Hodgins’ conspiracy theories are getting to her.

She waits for Brennan to notice her, huffing slightly eventually the anthropologist turns to her, “Come on Sweetie, the baby wants some Aunt Bren time. Let’s get lunch.” 

“The baby can’t tell you that Ange,” Brennan says flatly, turning back to the bag punching much quicker, less accurate, “I’m not hungry.”

“Brennan, come on just real quick?” Angela asks softly, “It’ll be fun, we haven’t talked in forever.”

Brennan punches again hard, sighing before stopping the bag from swinging, resting her forehead against it for a moment before turning to face the artist, “Fine.” Angela smiles as she goes to change.

When they get to the diner Angela prods Brennan for information on Booth and Hannah, when that doesn’t work she asks her friend more directly how she is, bringing up the extended hours as Brennan picks at a few fries but otherwise the fact she’s not hungry doesn’t seem to be a lie.

“I’ve had lots of work to do,” is the simple reply she gets. Angela keeps watching her hands, they’re still red, it’s not like the anthropologist to keep going to the point she hurts herself but those will bruise almost certainly.

“You’ve hardly been leaving the lab. And we haven’t had cases.”

“I’ve been working on Limbo,”

“Those bones aren’t getting anymore dead if you take breaks Sweetie.”

“Just because everyone else leaves them behind doesn’t mean I will,” The reply is maybe a bit angry but as Angela opens her mouth to reply Brennan’s phone goes off, “There’s a case.” She looks up and Angela can see her walls are up, “I’m fine. I’m taking care of myself, you all don’t have to babysit me.” She stands “I have to go.”

Angela sighs, Hodgins was right but it’s not like anyone can do anything to help if she won’t let them.


	2. Chapter 2

When Brennan gets to the scene Cam, Vincent and Hodgins had beat her to the scene, the scene is just off the highway a broken guardrail leads to the Atlantic below, she notes Booth isn’t there either as she approaches the scene “Dr. Brennan,” Cam motions to the FBI agent closest to him, “Agent Justin Laurie, he’ll be our liaison for this case.”

“Good to meet you, Dr. Brennan, I’m a huge fan.” He smiles and offers his hand to shake as Brennan sees the harnesses and equipment to take them over the edge of the cliff and quickly realizes they’re on a clock to beat the tide.

Brennan nods at him once, “Did you disturb the remains?” she demands grabbing her own harness as Hodgins gets hooked up to go down first.

“No, ma’am, no one has gone down.” Laurie shakes his head, looking down at the pad of paper he had, “A man slammed into the railing at approximately 5:25 this morning, rescue workers pulled him and his car fully back on the road an hour later and they found that.” He points down the cliff to the body, it’s in a heap only just at the base of the cliff, “We got called and you were called next, your friend there is the first one down there.”

Brennan nods looking at her watch “We’ll have to be quick and thorough, we have 5 hours and 37 minutes til high tide takes any evidence we may have.”

Agent Laurie nods “Okay, Y’all heard Dr. Brennan, I want everyone canvassing for any evidence, we have 5 hours here.”

Brennan sides eyes Cam, wondering if this agent is up to her standards, Cam seems to be able to read her thoughts as she shrugs before hooking herself up to repel down, can’t change who the FBI sends. Brennan quickly follows the pathologist down.

Hodgins is grabbing insects from the body, “This one hasn’t been here more than 12 hours according to these beauties.”

“It’s male, age indeterminable right now,” Brennan says looking at the body.

“Looks like he was burnt before he was dumped,” Cam moves the little bit of clothing untouched by the fire, “Though looks like his clothes smouldered it out before it could finish the job.” she looks down at what is probably his legs, though the many broken bones and crumpled mess puts them above the head, “These look like they could be military.”

Brennan frowns, “His head was crushed, I’ll need to reconstruct it before Angela can give us a face.”

“Whoever dumped him really didn’t want him identified,” Cam lifts the hand slightly “They cut off every one of his fingers.”

Brennan grabs the radio to contact the agents up above “Agent Laurie, your agents should be looking for fingers.” she begins before listing the specifications for the intern and the techs to collect and bring back to the lab.

After she’s done Cam grabs the radio, “You heard Dr Brennan, I want all of you to be extra careful, this tide isn’t going to give us another chance.”

Cam stands up easily hookinging herself back to the pulley letting the agents pull her back up to make room for the techs to get down, the small outcrop of rocks is certainly a tight fit. Soon after Brenna decides to follow her up, “See you at the lab,” Brennan offers to Hodgins before leaving herself.

As she gets to the top of the cliff she slowly gets her footing back on the edge, before she can fully get on the top Laurie is offering her a hand, “You said that you’ll need to reconstruct the skull, do you suppose that’s from the fall or from the person who dumped it.”

“I won’t be able to be certain until I get them back to the lab.” Brennan replies taking a step closer to the agent, still on the corner of the cliff

“Of course,” he nods, “Sorry maybe got over excited.”

Brennan nods, “Don’t let it keep happening, when we get the evidence we’ll let you know.”

“Yes-” The Agent is cut off by a roaring of a car coming down the sole open lane, and before they can think there’s several bangs as gunshots ring out. The agent pushes the anthropologist back a bit as everyone ducks, Brennan feels a sharp pain through her arm before the pulley’s rope loosens, and the doctor falls a bit, grabbing the rope before she could fall too far but slamming into the cliff edge with a grunt.

When the echos stop ringing she hears the Agents moving quickly around the scene, she gets pulled up quickly and sees the techs then quickly detaching that pulley for another one, the bullet had hit the rope, snapping some of it, “Are you alright Dr. Brennan?” she hears her intern’s voice ask as she’s moved quickly to the Jeffersonian’s van by one of the agents.

“I”m fine, Mr. Nigel-Murrey.” Brennan tries to shrug off the agent, seeing it’s the lead agent.

“I want all agents on high alert! Get that pulley back in place and I need this place fully secured, If you this it already is do it again, close the entire road. I want an APB on that vehicle and everyone out of here safely.” He announces to the group at large before quieting down as Cam comes over to them.

The pathologist is clearly worried as she comes up to them, “My people are okay, just shaken,” she looks over to Brennan frowning “Dr. Brennan, you’re bleeding.” Looking down Brennan is surprised she’s right, there’s a deep lacerations on her right leg and another right below her right shoulder, hitting the jagged cliff face must have caused them, the rest of her arm is covered in abrasions where her autopsy suit didn’t cover from the shifting of the harness. Noticing the cuts seemed to be enough for her brain to acknowledge the sharp pain from the injuries. “Brennan,” her boss slowly motions her to sit in the open back of the van, having her sit. She turns to the agent “Radio for an ambulance, she’s gonna need stitches.”

Brennan shakes her head, “No, I’ll be fine, I’ll clean it up at the lab.”

“Like hell you’re driving with a leg like that.” Cam replies before looking in the other doctor’s eyes and realizing this will be a fight that it’d be quicker to give in, she motions for Laurie’s radio, “Hodgins?”

“Hey, Cam, what the fuck was that? Everyone okay?”

Cam tries to sound sure but fails so even Brennan notices her worry, “Drive by, they’re getting the pulley put back in to get you up, Brennan’s mildly hurt but nothing too bad, I’m leaving the keys to the van for you and Vincent to get back to the lab, I’m going back with Brennan.”

The bug and slime guy doesn’t sound particularly happy when he agrees, but Cam is too focused on finding gause for Brennan giving the anthropologist a look about how much she’s willing to argue about this or her driving before handing it to her Brennan puts it on the higher cut, limping to her car’s passenger side before unlocking it, putting her keys in the cup holder for Cam to take.

The almost ninety minute ride back to the lab was a long one, when the cuts finally go from bleeding to cutting, Brennan leans back slightly into the chair, trying to stop her focus on the pain, “Booth is going to kill that kid for this,” Cam say giving a side glance at the cuts, they look painful and will certainly need stitches.

“No, he won’t, it was just an accident,” Brennan looks down, “Besides he’s out of town with Hannah, so not like he’ll know for a week. Most likely more as he hasn’t been talking to me much.”

Cam frowns, “Damnit Seeley,” she whispers under her breath, she opens her mouth to answer but is interrupted by Brennan continuing her explanation.

“It makes sense, he loves her, and we’re just partners, I didn’t…” she shakes her head decidedly, “It’s my fault.”

Cam doesn’t pretend to know why Brennan turned down Booth, or honestly many things the anthropologist does, she knows the truth matters more to her than anything else… had they truly read the doctor wrong or what made Booth give up on Brennan so completely, nonetheless that conversation is too big of a web for her to step in right now, unless Brennan was as sloshed as she was that night weeks earlier, though getting Brennan to that level of losing control was rare. So instead she just shakes her head hoping for the anthropologist to understand what she’s trying to say, “You deserve to be happy too Brennan.” she offers awkwardly, her and Brennan almost always have a veneer of professionalism, they’re certainly friends but there’s always a line.

“Last time I followed what I wanted after Booth decided to, we ended up here.” Brennan replies easily.

Once again, Cam is unsure how to answer, debating to push. Instead she lets the conversation to fall silent.

After several long minutes it’s too awkward for Cam, “So Michelle wants me to get a dog.”

“Anthropologically speaking kids are often given pets to teach responsibility,” Brennan replies, “Michelle is a bright girl, she’d be a good owner.”

“No she wants it for me, she’s worried I’ll be lonely when she leaves for college.” Cam roles her eyes, “No friends, not dating far as she’s concerned I’ll be a hermit.”

“We’re friends,” Brennan replies maybe a bit too quickly, “ I mean you’re friends with Angela and Booth.”

Cam nods, “We’re friends, she just thinks I need people outside work.”

“So...a dog?” Brennan raises an eyebrow

“So a dog… apparently,” Cam sighs, then laughs, “I thought this puppy love was a thing only little kids did.”

“I think I’m going to get a cat,” Brennan offers, “Sweets said the same thing about being good company.”

“Think I could get Michelle to agree to a cat?”

They get back to the lab easily enough, the conversation back to being light and easy, though Brennan flinches repeatedly at each rough bump shifting and pulling her wounds, the blood still oozing slowly.

“If you really want to not go to the hospital, you’re going to let me sew up those wounds,” Brennan opens her mouth to argue but Cam cuts her off, “If you argue, I will tell security to keep you out of the lab until you get proper medical care.”

Brennan huffs before dropping back, the fact that she doesn’t argue makes Cam take it as a win, a rare event in her and Brennan’s little game.

After slowly helping Brennan hobble to the lab, the pain in her leg is almost enough to ground her not that she’d admit it if asked, through her tensed jaw. Angela is waiting for them, offering to help Brennan get there as Cam moves ahead, preparing her office for a live patient, pulling the blinds and grabbing the tools she needs as the others are near behind her.

“No one else was hurt?” Angela double checks as she helps Brennan onto the table.

“Nope, they missed everyone,” Cam cuts a small length of plastic tube in her office, “Dr. Brennan obviously the people I usually cut into are dead, so I have no pain killers, you sure you want to do it this way?”

“I’ll be fine,” She replies easily

“Okay, Angela, wanna help me with her shirt?”

Angela gives the pathologist a look, “They’re both too high up to be able to roll the sleeves or legs up above them for Dr. Saroyan to clean the wounds, I have spare clothes in my office,” Brennan explains already doing the best she can to unbutton her blouse, hissing at the stretching, Angela nods pushing her friend’s hands away before slowly unbuttoning the others, Cam goes to the other side of the table and slowly helps the artist take she shirt off, wincing when the dried blood causes some fabric to pull at the wound causing Brennan to yelp slightly before slamming her mouth shut.

“Okay,” Cam hands the anthropologist the tube, Brennan easily puts it in her mouth, “You can’t move, got it Brennan?” She tells her maybe needlessly but still giving her friend an out.

When Brennan doesn’t reply instead flipping her arm to give Cam an easy view of the wound she takes that as understanding, the wound on her arm is deep, though not long, so with a deep breath Cam begins by cleaning the wound, Brennan lets out a whimper and Angela grabs her friend’s hand, letting her focus on that, though Brennan doesn’t react otherwise, she remains totally still as Cam puts the stitches in, then wraps the arm in gauze. The cut on her leg is longer and getting to it causes the dried blood to pull more, Brennan lets out a small scream though quickly swallows it down, squeezing Angela’s hand a bit tighter than she’d like, despite doing it longer Cam does it just as quick and just as accurately, “Done,” Cam says quickly, “I’m sorry, done,” She apologizes needlessly as Brennan focuses her breathing trying to calm down, Cam hands her a pair of autopsy scrubs figuring the loose clothing would hurt less on the stitches.

Brennan quickly puts the clothes on “Thank you, Dr. Saroyan,” she says, “I’ll be more careful in the future.” she offers before leaving quickly.

“That wasn’t her fault,” Cam shakes her head, “This case gives me a bad feeling in my gut.”

“Was it the drive by or the way the guy’s identity has been totally covered up?” Angela asks wryly hiding her worry as best as possible.

“I don’t know, everything.” Cam drops into her chair feeling exhausted despite it only being 4, she grabs her mother’s necklace around her neck, biting her lip, “just a bad feeling.”

Angela nods, “I don’t suppose you could wait to have Hodgins deskin the bones?” Cam frowns at the potential delay of justice, “Hodgins said Bren would have to reconstruct the skull, If it’s going to be deskined tonight, she’ll stay and do it, and she’s been, well,”

Cam nods, “Not taking care of herself? Pulling away from everyone? Self destructing?”

“You’ve noticed.”

“Yeah. For a few weeks.”

“How bad do you think she is?”

Cam laughs, “Does it matter? She’s not going to listen to us right now, we just... need to keep an eye on her I suppose.” The door to the lab opens revealing Hodgins, Mr. Nigel-Murphy and the techs with the body, “I’ll tell Hodgins to wait on it, but I think I pushed my ‘get Brennan to not argue’ cards today.”

When the body is laid out, they try to make more observations about the body, Angela confirms Cam’s note about the clothing being military, “I’ll see if these scraps can give us anything, though I doubt it will.”

Cam nods, “I’ll start the autopsy, see if tests can tell us anything, Hodgins you should be able to strip the bones tomorrow morning most likely.”

Hodgins nods, continuing to look over the body for any particles to help, “I’ll run some tests, see why set this guy up in flames.”

“Dr. Saroyan, If the flesh isn’t off til tomorrow I can’t start the skull reconstruction til then, I could finish it tonight and let Angela give us a face sooner.”

“We’re doing this by the book Dr. Brennan, flesh then bones, you can start your reconstruction tomorrow.”

“But…”

Cam takes her gloves off to prepare autopsy for it’s newest visitor, she gently puts her hand on Brennan’s shoulder, hoping she’ll see this isn’t a punishment, “Go home and get some rest Brennan, that was a rough fall and you’ve been working a lot lately.”

“I don’t need rest, Cam,” Brennan scoffs, “I use one of my freebies.”

“Dr. Brennan,” Cam repeats sternly, “Go home.” she leaves the platform, let Brennan be upset with her if that’s enough to help her oh so stubborn friend,

“Sweetie,” Angela looks up from her clipboard making notes on the clothing, “Cam is right, go home, eat, rest. You’re no good to anyone if you’re burnt out.”

Brennan frowns before nodding, she giving up her fight perhaps quicker than she normally would. Leaving the lab perhaps faster than she’d like.

When she gets to her car she falls back, just drained from today, she decides to do something else to at least try to stop thinking, she decides to go home and change then find her own company for the night.

That plan takes her to a bar near her apartment. It has her take her first drink, then three more. She laughs easily and when a woman asks if she’s the author Temperance Brennan, they start talking. Jesse is a doctor at one of the hospitals, she buys Brennan another drink. Brennan shares some of her more interesting cases, Jesse does the same. Brennan can’t help but notice how she’s just the opposite of Booth, no messy ties or losing everything. No getting hurt when she leaves.

Jesse offers to take Brennan home and when Brennan replies with her inexperience with women, Jesse just laughs, promising to teach her. Brennan orders two more drinks before agreeing, giving the cab driver her address before guiding Jesse upstairs. She lets the blonde lead her, the doctor is gentle with her injuries and the giving up control for once is nice. Giving into even the illusion of happiness makes her honestly smile for the first time in a long while.

The next morning her good arm is over Jesse, their legs are tied together it’s still before the sun comes up, she decides to close her eyes again, the next time they’re open it’s from an alarm not her own, “I gotta get up, need to get ready for 10am rounds,” the blonde groans rolling off the bed looking for her clothes. Brennan nods realizing she’s going to be late too, she rolls out of bed and begins getting ready too.


	3. Chapter 3

The air Medico Legal lab is tense as the morning turns to afternoon and Dr. Brennan’s office remains dark. They’ve all tried calling her to no avail. The time hits one when Angela gives up on keeping her worry at bay “I’m going to go to her apartment, see what’s up,” she says leaning into Cam’s office.

The pathologist sighs, “This isn’t like her, I’ll try seeing if Sweets or Booth know anything,” Cam’s computer beeps, opening it hoping it’s good news, “Well, we got an ID, DNA is from First Sergeant Brent Cooper, no one’s reported him missing though.”

“Send that to Laurie, I’ll look into it after I get back.”

The artist ends up not going to her friend’s apartment. When she gets to the parking garage she sees Brennan’s car, in it’s assigned spot beside Cam’s and Hodgins’ cars. Frowning, she goes up to the car, the anthropologist’s car door is open slightly, but there’s no sign of Brennan anywhere. Angela’s hands shake as she grabs her phone, “Cam, we have a problem.”

Less than an hour later the FBI is all over the scene, looking over what evidence they can find, the open glove box and gun on passenger seat shows Brennan didn’t go quietly, her wallet, on the ground a ways away from her car hopefully has fingerprints from whoever did this, is right beside a mostly empty syringe. The Squints and Sweets are in Angela’s office, “Okay, so here’s what the security tapes show.” 

When Angela starts the video they see Brennan’s car pull in, it stays there for almost a minute the brunette not getting out right away. A figure goes up to the car and taps on the window, a gun pointed through the window. The team looks over the figure looking for any identifying features, but they’re in a plain black sweatshirt and jeans, a baseball cap covering the rest of the face. Brennan doesn’t get out of the car, instead the person slams open the door, pulling her out. Brennan stands up straight, saying something to the figure as the gun is put to her forehead, then they stab a syringe in Dr. Brennan’s arm, injecting most of it before Brennan can react, almost immediately the Doctor seems woozie, the shot is blocked by a grey SUV coming through. When it’s gone so is Brennan along with whoever took her.

The team is silent after the video ends, it’s Cam who snaps out of it first, “Hodgins, I need you to find out what they injected. Angela, see if you can find out about our kidnapper, height, weight hair color, whatever, same with that car, you know what to do.”

Sweets looks pale as he says, “I’ll start going through Dr. Brennan’s old cases, see if there’s anyone that stands out as a suspect for this,” he doesn’t wait for an answer before leaving, “If they don’t demand ransom it’s probably someone from her cases.”

Cam leaves too, hoping that her expertise won’t be needed. After getting in her office she picks up her phone, “Booth, I know you’re not in town but you need to get back, now.”

0-0-0-0-0

Brennan half comes to in a dark room, she looks around and takes stock as best she can. There’s a length of rope in her mouth effectively muting her, her hands are handcuffed together is the next thing she notices. She feels her legs, those are bound too. 

As her eyes adjust to the low light she sees there’s a mattress in the corner of the room and a bucket in the other. Before she has a chance to look around further the room is flooded with light as the door opens before slamming shut. Before her eyes are able to adjust again she’s yanked to her feet, “Don’t fight me or you’ll regret it Dr. Brennan. Stay standing.” the voice sounds off, the person is changing their voice. Brennan assumes he has a device under their mask.

Before she can look further at her captor she’s hit in the stomach. She doubles over in pain when another one lands, she steps back but the ties on her leg tense, he punches her in the face and with that she falls, grunting as she can’t stop or even cushion her fall. He grins, “I told you to stand.” he then kicks her, before the next one she shifts her hands preparing to catch his next kick. She catches it, attempting to twist to flip him, only for her to be hit by his heel, the person laughs, rolling her onto her back then straddling her on the ground, “Listen to me, Dr. Brennan. You will stop fighting. I will break you. I will not kill you unless you make me. Only after you are completely broken, I will let you go. Do you understand?”

Brennan nods once. The mask shows no emotions, “Good,” he nods, pulling a folding knife from his back pocket. First he brings it to her face Brennan stops breathing as he runs it along her cheek. He laughs as he cuts the gag off. “Now your punishment,” he raises her shirt revealing her already reddening, he brings the knife to her skin cutting a deep wound from her lower ribs to her hip, she is unable to bite back her scream, “That’s a warning,” he gets off her, next time will be worse. He stands, kicking her twice more before leaving the room.

When he leaves Brennan starts to try to record her injuries, her eye is probably going to blacken, the cut will be an issue but isn’t awful, the kicks will probably cause bruises but nothing feels broken. She continues her analysis by extending to the room, it’s not big, approximately 6 feet by 8 feet, there’s only the one door in and out. Looking up to the opposite wall she sees there’s a window, groaning she forces herself to stand and try to check it out, it’s night. It’s a new moon so no light’s coming in and she can’t guess the time either. The window is locked from the outside, and too high and narrow for her to potentially climb out. Room sorted out she finally tries to think how she got here, she was at the Jeffersonian, she remembers driving there, but then blank she sighs and decides to try to use clues later.

The door clicks and she quickly steps away from the window, best not to anger her captor further, but this person was shorter, still wearing a mask though, shorter than the first person. They’re holding a small tray. They put it on the floor and leave. Brennan hesitates before going over to it, it’s a tray of food not much, rice, bread, and apple, peanut butter a few granola bars and two bottles of water. She hesitates to eat anything they’ve given her. The FBI and her team will find her. Booth will find her. She just has to survive til then. Looking at the food again she sits, the apple, bars and water will be safe, she takes them from the tray and takes them eating them maybe a bit too fast washing it down with the water. She still feels woosie so moves to the mattress the door opens a third time, the first man is back.

“Didn’t enjoy the meal, Dr. Brennan?” he kicks the tray spilling the remaining food, he smirks, “We won’t poison you, Dr.” He walks up to her smirking, “Your arm.” he orders. Brennan tries to pull herself away, he risks, “ Come now, you must learn to behave.” he graba a revolver from his hip, spinning it three times before putting it to her forehead, cocking it and pulling the trigger. Brennan feels her breath hitch for a second, her eyes screw shut and she hears the bang and… nothing. Her ears are ringing but she’s alive. He laughs, “One bullet. Use your brain to figure the odds of it turning out well for you each time. Now, give me your arm.”

She hesitantly gives it to him and he stabs a syringe into it, “Good night Dr. Brennan.”

Brennan isn’t certain what he gave her but very quickly she can’t stay awake, she falls asleep despite her best efforts

0-0-0-0-0

It’s past midnight when Hodgins enters Angela’s office. His wife is running through the security tape still, he know she has been going at it for hours, “Angie…”

“If you tell me to go home Hodgins I will divorce you.”

The entomologist raises his hands, “I wasn’t going to say for you to, but if you’re exhausted you’ll make mistakes, maybe just, take a short rest? For the baby?” 

She sighs, replaying the tape again, before putting the Angelatron’s controls down, “You will wake me in two hours, and I’m not going home,” she moves to her couch and sits, glaring, “Understand?”

Hodgins nods, “Yes, love of my life, mother of my child, I would never do anything to upset you.”

When he her leaves her office he’s surprised to hear the lab doors open, Arastoo, Wendell, Clark, Daisy and Vincent enter, they come bearing several coffee cups, looking like they’ve had long nights too, “What are you guys doing here?” he asks the Squinterns.

“Dr. Sweets told us about Dr. Brennan,” Clark informs, “We figured it was probably related to the case from yesterday and Vincent said the skull needed rebuilding.”

“We figured between all of us we could at least help that way, and be extra hands to help however we could,” Arastoo cuts Clark off to finish his point, handing Hodgins a coffe

Hodgins smiles, “We’ll take whatever help we can get. Go talk to Cam with your theory.”

The door opens again and it’s Booth quickly followed by Hannah, Hodgins crosses his arms, he can’t help but feel abandoned by the agent and if he were honest with himself mad on Dr. Brennan’s behalf.

“What’s going on Hodgins?” the agent demands, “Cam called me and demanded us back and didn’t share why.”

The door opens a third time, “Hey,” Sweets yells, holding several folders, “I have the best profiles for suspects for who kidnapped Dr. Brennan, is Angela still here to see if they match?”

Booth and Hannah’s face turn to surprise, “What do you mean Bones was kidnapped?”

Hodgins yanks the files from Sweets’ hand walking towards his wife’s office, if he didn’t tell her about this she’d be pissed, “Dr. Brennan was taken from the parking structure about 10 this morning, we’ve been trying to find her ever since.” he hands the files to Angela and leaves her and Sweets to it.

“What do you guys know so far?” Hannah asks as she walks past her boyfriend who froze for a second at the new, “Have they called for ransom? Any way to know where they took Temperance? I can use my resources to get it on the news and get everyone in DC on the look out.”

Hodgins pauses, “Um, yeah, yeah. Dr. Saroyan can help you with that.”

“I’m going to her apartment,” Booth finally shakes from his reaction, “See if there’s anything there.”

“I’ll go too!” Wendell says leaving Cam’s office, “Two eyes are better than one.”

The agent doesn’t look thrilled but nods, turning to Hannah, “I’ll take a cab, I’m going to the station after this, I’ll be home late.” she interupts.

Booth smiles and kisses her though both are half hearted, “Wendell, lets go,” he yells leaving the lab as quickly as he came.


	4. Chapter 4

Brennan’s apartment is different than the last time Booth visited, everything has shifted slight and moved. He hesitates slightly before entering, “Hey Booth,” Wendell calls from the kitchen, he shows a post it note from the fridge door, “Check this out.”

Booth takes the note, in loopy messy handwriting Booth reads, “I had a great night last night, call me sometime for a repeat, Jesse,” a phone number is scrawled under the message.

“Who’s Jesse?” Wendell asks.

“I’m not sure,” Booth frowns, grabbing his phone before dialing the number, ignoring the late hours, if this finds Bones faster then so be it, unfortunately he gets voicemail, “Hello Jesse, this is Agent Booth from the FBI, if you could give me a call back we have a few questions for you about a case we’re working on.” He hangs up turning to Wendell, “Aren’t you a Squint? Come on squint, find something.”

0-0-0-0-0

At some point Brennan is able to at least pull herself from the haze of whatever they gave her. The room is a bit brighter as she tries to stand, the sun is coming in the window, she takes note that means she’s facing east. Little facts help her focus. The drugs she was given caused her to be sleepy and not feel pain, maybe an opioid? That’d be easiest to come by, she figures. She also knows there’s at least 2 people involved.

She looks at her injuries, the bruises are almost black across her stomach, her eye hurts but isn’t swollen as much as it could be. The cut looks to have started healing, it will take awhile. The gashes from the cliff are held shut, the stitches have held which is good, though she notes that could be an issue if she’s here too long

She runs through the information she’s learned in the kidnapping classes the CIA made her take as she worked on more and more of their high security cases. Remain calm, they’ll most likely release you after ransom if paid. Keep track of the day and time. She looks around the room, she needs to mark it somewhere, the ground is dirt, she kneels under the window, writing the last date she remembers. Remembering is the next thing, remain mentally and physically active.

Dr. Brennan is impervious, these people will fail to break her.

0-0-0-0-0

Booth is stewing. Hacker forbid him from being in the interrogation room, some rookie, Laurie, was taking lead and Booth was on desk duty. That doesn’t stop him from watching. Dr. Jesse Cain, a doctor at Sibley, the blonde is calm, Booth doesn’t read her as worried or guilty.

The door opens, “Dr. Cain, I’m Dr. Sweets, this is Agent Laurie. Thank you for coming in, we just have a few questions for you.” they sit.

“How do you know Dr. Brennan?” the agent pushes a picture of the note towards her.

“Temperance? I met her at the bar, we slept together. She’s there fairly often, never with anyone.” the doctor shrugs, “Figured if she wanted a meeting of the minds again she could call. Did something happen?”

“Dr. Brennan is missing,” Sweets tells the doctor, “Did she do anything that just seemed off to you?”

“No, no, we mostly talked shop, little bit about this and that. Talking wasn’t exactly the highest thing on either of our minds.” She leans back in the chair, “She was drinking like it was water, I don’t know why but maybe that’s something? Otherwise I don’t know.”

“Thank you Dr. Cain, Dr. Sweets will walk you out,”

Booth hardly waits til the woman is out of the room before he storms into the interrogation room, “What the hell was that Laurie, you hardly asked her anything!”

“Booth, she didn’t know shit, the note’s a dead end. Dr. Brennan wasn’t kidnapped from her home, she was kidnapped from the Jeffersonian. They haven’t called for ransom so it’s doubtful it’s monetarily motivated.”

“Bones doesn’t go out and get drunk like she said, and she doesn’t do one night stands.”

I have no reason to believe Dr. Cain is lying. The squints are right, it’s probably tied to a case, hell most likely the one that’s coincidentally also mine,” He walks past Booth, “So let me do my job, you were the one who stepped away from the liaison position.”

“Where are you going?” Booth demands

“To find Dr. Brennan.”

0-0-0-0-0

“Good morning, Dr. Brennan,” the taller man enters the room, his mask is still on, “Get up!” he yells, pulling her to her feet. Before Brennan can even think he raises her arms above her head, attaching the handcuffs to a hook from the ceiling, Brennan strains her legs to try to keep her feet on the ground, but she’s just a few inches too short. Her arms and shoulders immediately start protesting the strain on them, he laughs, bringing out a pair of scissors before yanking Brennan’s head down by her hair, taking a chunk off before doing it again and again.

Brennan tries to focus on something else, Sweets would say this is him trying to psychologically break her, he’s right in most cultures hair has major significance. If she was killed this would make it harder for her to be IDed not enough for her team though. 

Suddenly the kidnapper releases her head, she looks up and can’t help but glare into the dark eyes peeking through the mask. He risks stepping behind her where she can’t see. She doesn’t have time to try to look before she feels a sting coming down on her back, she yells out as he does it again, her shirt only protecting her back slightly and being ripped at with each lash, the third hit is the first that she begins to feel blood trickle down her back. Her mind finally confirms what he’s using, a whip.

She tries to focus on anything else though the stings make that almost impossible. She tightens her jaw to not give him any further screams or reaction. She won’t let him win. When he’s done he scrapes something on her back and leaves, holding the whip in one hand and pocketing something with the other.

The other one comes in much quicker than last time, they uncuff Brennan and she drops to her feet, falling to her knees and her arms luckily catch her. Before she can really get her bearing a new bolt of shocking stinging runs through her body. Water. She realizes coughing and looking at the figure holding a bucket over her head. All the water drains to the corner closest to the window. The shorter figure then puts the tray down and leaves.

Brennan looks at the tray, about the same food as yesterday, a cold bowl of oatmeal and two eggs added a bit of breakfast feel. There’s also a change of clothes and some first aid supplies, maybe she can at least try to stop the injuries from infecting. As soon as she finishes eating she painfully wraps her chest and back as much as possible, then giving in and changing into the shirt and sweats they gave her, at least wetness is one less thing to worry about. She moves to the mattress, falling into a restless sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Defeat is not a word the scientists at the Jeffersonian are accustomed to. They’re the best of the best and they don’t lose. They had found the killer of the Army Officer, it was his wife, and her boyfriend, they confessed to the murder and the drive by. But there’s no tie between her and Dr. Brennan, car, time, anything, . They wasted 10 days they had to find Brennan, there’s still no contact from whoever took her and they have nothing.

They all sit in the lounge, the sun having long gone down but they’re still there. Cam knows she shouldn’t be letting them continue to waste resources, statistically they’re now looking for a body. She knows they know that. Instead she grabs another one of the pieces of pizza from the center of the table various papers and files strewn about each one reading something, “We have to be missing something here.”

“What, Cam?” Angela snaps, “We’ve looked through all this a million times.”

“She leaves the lab, goes to the bar, leaves home late the next morning, gets here at 10:16.”

“The main kidnapper is approximately 5’ 8”, 150 pounds, has a slight limp on their left side, injected her with propfol, put her in the van with their accomplice, we have a few toll fairs paid going west but then they disappear.” Angela continues the run through what they all have memorized by now.

Cam sighs, there’s no flesh in this case, she’s not able to help medically and even her gut isn’t helping her here. She flops back into her seat truly feeling the defeat sink into her chest.

Her phone ringing surprises all of them, “Dr. Saroyan?” she answers, it’s Sweets on the other end.

“You guys need to get to this scene fast.”

“What’s going on Sweets?”

“They think they may’ve found her, you guys will have to make an identification.”

Cam takes a deep breath before nodding, “We’ll be there,” she hangs up taking a shaking breath. She knows Dr. Brennan would tell her to put her emotions in a box, she settles for listening to her friend’s advice this time, someone needs to be the one keeping everyone on evenish keel, “We have a case, Hodgins, get the van ready? Angela, go home.”

“Is it…” Hodgins trails off as Cam’s face is enough of an answer to the question, “I’ll get the van.” he bolts down the stairs

“Cam…” Angela starts, trying to fight her hormones to stop from totally breaking down.

“We’re going to get answers Angela, if this is her,” Cam hesitates at the thought, she’s trying to resolve herself for the next several hours and days, “If it’s her, we will get her justice, we’ll get answers. If it’s not her, we will find her, alive. This is Dr. Brennan we’re talking about, I’m sure she’ll be… we’ll find her.”

Angela nods, “I… can’t be here, when you get back, I’ll do my job just, not tonight.”

“Go home Angela.”

0-0-0-0-0

The silence in the car is heavy as they drive to the scene, it’s not far from the Jeffersonian, laid out in the stage of one of the local parks, above the body is a bloody message, “Death speaker,” Hodgins translates, “It’s greek,” he looks down and Cam is certain his face gets more grim.

They both stone their faces as they kneel by the body, “It’s difficult to be certain with all the blood and injuries but it does look like this body’s been dead eight to ten days.”

“Larvae and flies agree, I can be more sure in the lab.” Hodgins wishes he was able to box his emotions up like Brennan and Zack did. No, he corrects himself, do, they do, Zack is alive and Brennan is too, until proof says otherwise. He can’t though so all he can see is the blood splattered dolphin ring on this body’s right ring finger, and the shreds of clothing remaining the same blue blouse he’s seen time and again in the footage of his friend being kidnapped. “We’re not letting anyone but our guys collect anything here, I don’t want any mistakes.”

Cam nods, noticing how the entomologist’s eyes have gone hard in place of the storm of emotion she had seen in the car, “We won’t miss anything.”

0-0-0-0-0

Brennan has one of her rare moments of lucidity, they had been injecting her more often with the drugs. She rolls over, thankfully nothing is hurting yet. Across the room from her is Angela, sitting cross legged, she laughs, “This is pretty pathetic Bren,” she walks towards the anthropologist, “I mean I knew you were weak and emotionless but this is a new low.”

“Ange-” Brennan’s voice is hoarse from lack of use, this can’t be real, she knows it can’t be.

“You’re going to die here. Alone. Do you honestly believe we’d be looking for you?”

“We’re better off without you.” Angela is now Sweets, “You’re cold, unfeeling. All you do is hurt people.”

“You’re selfish,” the psychologist turns to be Hodgins, “You’re the reason I was even in that stupid car in the first place.”

Brennan tries to turn away, this isn’t real, she’s alone.

The door opens and the big figure enters, he rarely gives her the injection but this time he does, she starts to feel less lucid almost immediately, she fades out hearing him laugh at her.

0-0-0-0-0

Cam could go home. Nothing in her contract says she can’t wait til morning. She’d love to put this off. She shakes her head, taking a deep breath she starts the autopsy. She takes the blood sample from the wall message first to run for blood type and DNA, then takes a syringe and takes some for both typing and DNA from the body. Both samples are also prepared for a toxicology report.

With those tests going she starts examining the skin, the gash from the day before the anthropologist disappeared still has the stitches in it, but something’s off, she ghost motions how she’d tie them off, yup, she’s right, that’s… something to have hope about, “Hodgins!” she calls knowing he’s the only one still here.

Hodgins leans in to her office, “These bugs are telling me some very good news,” he holds up the vial of them. “This isn’t Dr. Brennan, this body has been dead for at least two weeks, and I think I can get a very tight radius of where they’re from.

“Even if your bugs are wrong, look at this,” she brings him over to the leg, “They definitely tried to copy the stitches she’d have from the drive by. But, whoever did it was right handed, different knot then I do.”

There’s a ding from the blood typing machine, Cam goes for the results, “I’m sure this is still tied to Brennan though, the writing on the wall is her blood type, and not the same as in the body.”

“Well this is our clue then,” Hodgins smiles, “there were some particulates the bugs have been giving me, hopefully it’ll be enough to further narrow it down.”

Nearly two weeks into Brennan being missing they know they’ll be able to bring her home.


	6. Chapter 6

“Whoever this woman is, I can’t find any trace of her,” Angela has tried any and all even potential face matches and nothing is coming up.

Cam nods figuring as much after three days of looking. “Maybe Hodgins will have more luck?”

Angela’s shoulders drop, “Hopefully.”

Hodgins comes in suddenly, “Big news,” he smirks, “Pull up a map Angie?”

He shows them a small vial of bugs, telling them their name, “These beauties have a very specific range of habitat, about a few hundred miles between Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland, all around these three rivers.” he taps the three on the map, “They also

Angela highlights them, “Well these two are too far south, they went through the toll booths further north.”

“Do we have anything to narrow it down further? That’s still a huge area to cover.”

“Dr. Brennan’s clothes had sap from Norway Maple, it’s invasive so they just sprayed a patch right here,” he motions and circles an area, “About 15 square miles.”

“That is something we can work with.”

“I think I can do better then that even,” Angela zooms in on the map, “That area is pretty uninhabited,” the angelatron beeps, “50 structures,” the spots are red dots in the area, “Think the FBI can cover that?”

Cam is already making the call.

0-0-0-0-0

Electricity corses through Brennan’s body. She does her best not to move, they had put pen knives through the palm of both her hands, if she moves it’ll probably create more damage. She’s not sure it matters anymore, it had been 24 days by her count, her few lucid moments were enough to tell her some of her injuries are infected, anyone on the case would be looking for a body now. She’s certain the visions of Booth and the others are certainly right, she deserves this, she’ll die alone.

The bigger kidnapper seems to smirk under the mask, he takes the revolver out of his back pocket, he spins it and puts it to her head before it clicks once, then again, then a third time. He laughs as Brennan doesn’t flinch this time.

He leaves the room, leaving the door open, she could run, maybe, but she knows she won’t be able to fight even just the two off with how injured she is. As quick as he leaves they both return. The shorter on pulls the knives out and injects her again. She feels herself lifted up more than actually experiences it. “It’s gonna snow,” the smaller one says.

“Let’s dump her then. We can’t be tracked by that.”

She tries to keep her eyes open, closing her eyes only to force them open again. She’s put in a car. She tries to follow the turns they take, left then a right, another right, her eyes fall shut again.

She wakes to the cold, it’s loud. A road. She can’t muster the strength to even grunt when she lands on the road, it’s cold. The car speeds away. It’s snowing. She’s in a ditch on the side of the road. She can see cars speeding by. Despite her acceptance of death, she’s never been able to stop fighting. She does her best to claw her way to the road. When she finally pulls herself to the road’s edge she drops face down, any fight finally left, she’s done.

Tires squealing are the last thing she hears before she passes out.

0-0-0-0-0

Being part of the science side of the crime solving equation everyone in the lab is used to waiting for the call confirming they got the right information to arrest the suspect. After two days of legal finagling Laurie got the go ahead to send five teams to ten of the locations each to see if the owners would allow them to search for the missing anthropologist.

Sweets was the first to stop by as they had all been too distracted to continue working on the case. If they can’t identify the woman and already know she was killed by a bullet to the heart they’re at a stand still. So the psychologist showing up with several large bags of food was enough to have them all give in and wait for the call in the lounge. He’s promised to call Daisy as soon as he knows anything and the other squinters all know to look for a call from Daisy when she knows.

They talk a bit though the silences are extensive as they all are caught up in their own thoughts.

“Do Russ and Max know we think we found her?” Sweets asks the silence gets tense as they’re no longer able to even pretend to ignore the elephant in the room.

“Neither have answered their phones… Booth is worried Max will go rogue if he knows too much.” Cam’s tone implies she wouldn’t think he’d be wrong to.

Angela’s phone rings, frowning at the unknown number but answers “Hello?”

“Hello, can I talk to Angela?”

“This is her.”

“Hello Angela, this is Doctor Skare from Howard University Hospital, we have a Jane Doe in our ER that gave us your name and number, we’ve been unable to get her name we need you to come see if you can identify her for us?”

“Um… yeah, sure, I’ll be there as soon as I can.” she frowns hanging up her phone, the call was slightly off putting to be sure, but she can’t tamper down the hope cause she can think of very few people who would give her number, and her gut says it’s Brennan. 

0-0-0-0-0

Angela and Sweets get to the hospital a bit under an hour, Cam and Hodgins remaining to hold down the fort and help agents narrow down where to look if needed.

After what feels like forever, Angela is lead to a room in the ICU, Sweets is told to stay in the waiting room. The room is warmer than the rest of the hospital, “She’s sedated so won’t be awake any time soon,” the nurse explains

Angela looks at the figure in the bed, the figure’s hair is chopped haphazardly, her face is a messy mix of black purple and green, bandages cover her hands from the wrist up, her leg is bent as if in a cast, several IVs are in her elbow and forearm and her body looks noticeably malnourished. Yet she is certain her gut feeling was right, “Oh Sweetie,” she turns to the nurse, “This is Dr. Temperance Brennan,” she feels her entire body shaking as she moves to leave the room, “I need to make a few calls.”

0-0-0-0-0

Investigating the worst crime society has to offer steels you to awful acts sometimes, many would also say it steals your humanity away when you can look at victims and be able to just see evidence. Looking over Brennan’s medical chart Cam can’t seem to make herself do that, she’s silently hoping the others don’t ask her to translate as it doesn’t paint a pretty picture of the last three and a half weeks for the anthropologist. Each additional note in the chart makes her feel nauseous to know about her friend. 

Her guilt is mirrored back to her in the others eyes, all seeming to look anywhere but the hospital bed and yet being unable to look away too long. The steady beep of the machines is soothing, proof of life.

Sweets can’t sit still, he keeps tapping his fingers on his knee, looking at the doctor’s figure once in a while eyes big like a kicked puppy. He keeps tapping to release the energy of uselessness.

Hodgins is angry, the others can almost feel it radiat off him as he paces. His eyes soften slightly when he looks at his boss in the bed, only to get mad again as he’s reminded of her condition. He knows she would’ve done better, been quicker, if it were one of them.

Angela can’t look at Brennan. She knows that’s fucked up that she can’t look at her best friend but she can’t see her like this. She’s terrified she’s not strong enough to help her friend after this.

Brennan remains unconscious, her breathing even. She’s been in and out of complete unconsciousness and being just awake enough to make it clear how much pain she’s in. The doctors have cleaned and closed what wounds they could, repaired the tendons in her hands and the minor internal bleeding with surgery. Now all that’s left is for her to wake up and heal.

Booth has been absent since the FBI called back the teams from looking at the buildings, the blizzard making it too difficult to get through that road til it stops. He knows where they are. His absence is loud even in the silent room.


	7. Chapter 7

Brennan tries to wake herself, it’s less difficult than usual. It smells different too. She tries to remember the day before, nothing. She decides that at least awake she’s less vulnerable to whatever they had planned next for her. She has to immediately close her eyes at the brightness. She forces her hand up to her eyes despite how heavy it feels. “Sorry,” she opens her eyes even slower not wanting to deal with the hallucinations, she honestly could deal with anything they had better than hearing the truth from her friend’s mouths. She has to face it though. She slowly opens her eyes, blinking several times she slowly makes out Hodgins’ figure, she also has to blink a few more times to make sense of this hallucination.

It’s not as bright as it had been. Less light than a second ago. She feels the bandages on her back and her hands. She’s laying on something nicer than the mattress in the room. This is fake. She’s dead. This is a hallucination.

“Hey, Dr. B,” He smiles, though it quickly turns to a frown as her vitals spike up, and she’s obviously panicking, “Hey, you’re okay,” he move to touch her arm just above the bandage but stops when she flinches back, “Brennan, you’re safe, I promise. You’re at the hospital. You’re safe.”

Brennan’s voice is hoarse when she declares, “You’re not real.”

Hodgins decides to go against his better judgement and put his hand softly on her shoulder, “I’m real, You aren’t there anymore, you’re safe,” Hodgins feels useless as he tries to say the right thing to help her

The touch shocks Brennan for a second, the figures had never touched her, just yelled the truth at her til she’d prefer the beatings and torture, “Hodgins?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Good to see you awake Dr. B.”

“What happened?”

“The perpetrators dropped you on the side or the road, they found you hypothermic and injured pretty bad. They closed up you back, fixed the broken leg, they did surgery to fix the tendons in your hand but that’ll be a slow recovery,” Black and white facts, he can do that and that’s what Dr. B works best with.

“What day is it?”

“November 5th.”

She closes her eyes, “That’s 26 days.” she nods, accepting at some point she lost a day.

“We’ll find who did this, Dr. B.”

Brennan opens her eyes, studying him, “Does it really matter?”

Hodgins hesitates, because of course it does, but he sees she means this just as seriously as anything else, that these guys didn’t do anything wrong, “Of course it does.”

Brennan can only shake her head, the sedation pulling her back unconscious.

0-0-0-0-0

Hodgins has gotten better at dealing with his anger. He had never been happier in his life. But this anger is boiling just under the skin. It’s at himself for failing Brennan and the unjustness of the whole situation. He hates feeling useless.

When Sweets gets there Hodgins leaves, telling him slightly about Brennan’s reaction to waking to tell him what to expect.

He knows how to put his anger to use. He gets in his car and drives to Booth’s apartment.

It’s late evening when he gets there, Hodgins parks right in front of the building, quickly running up the stairs. Stopping in front of Booth’s door. He takes a breath to try to properly contain his anger but he only barely pushes it below the surface.

Hannah answers very quickly after he knocks, pounds, on the door, “Dr. Hodgins?” She frowns, “What’s wrong? Is it about Temperance? Seeley isn’t here.”

“Yeah, it’s about Dr. B. Do you know where Booth is?” Honestly he’s long since given up being mad at the reporter for anything related to Booth he was the one who pushed moving on and making sure everyone knew how ‘fine’ it is.

She tells him where Booth had said he was, “Said he was getting a drink then gonna come home.”

“Yeah…” he nods before leaving.

0-0-0-0-0

Sweets tries to focus on the book he’s brought with him. It’s interesting but he can’t seem to keep from looking up, watching Dr. Brennan breathe. It’s maybe a little creepy but honestly they were all expecting her dead, needing proof of life is to be expected. At least that’s what he tells himself is the case psychologically.

Eventually though Sweets notices Brennan’s face tightens into a grimace. He puts the book down watching closely to see if it was physical pain or a nightmare. When her jaw tenses and she whimpers slightly. Sweets decides it doesn’t matter which, touching her shoulder slightly.

She snaps awake, pulling away from his touch.

Sweets raises both his hands up in surrender, watching as she slows her breathing and seems to try and get control of herself entirely.

She looks at him, “Must’ve been a bad dream,” trying to stop herself from being sick. 

He nods once gently, “It’s almost morning.”

“I don’t want to sleep,” Brennan sounds somewhere between panicked and begging, “I’ve slept enough.” she doesn’t want to keep being drugged out. The hospital has been as bad at that as the room.

Sweets nods, “No one will make you.”

She turns on the TV, when she turns on the history channel, they then spend time pointing out inaccuracies of the documentaries.

0-0-0-0-0

Hodgins finds Booth easily enough. He ‘s at one of the many tables of blackjack, clearly drunk but also apparently losing. Hodgins comes up beside him, “I can think of about a million places you should be this isn’t one of them.”

“Leave me alone bug boy.” Booth says paying for more chips to immediately put in the pile of the next hand.

“You should’ve been with us, helping your partner. Or home with Hannah. What do you think Brennan or Cam would say to see you gambling again?”

“Hodgins, leave. Bones doesn’t need me. And Hannah knows where I am.”

Hodgins laughs bitterly, twisting Booth to face him, “God to think I had respect for you, this is pathetic Booth.”

Booth looks at the scientist once more before clenching his fist pulling it back before punching Hodgins. The punch sends Hodgins reeling back, “I said leave me alone.”

Hodgins touches his nose, certain the agent broke it. He raises his hand to throw a punch bac, knowing her wouldn’t win but it’s get his anger out. Instead he can only see the agent as broken and pathetic and he clearly wouldn’t want his help, “Pathetic,” he grumbles again, pulling a few bills on the table for the dealer, “Sorry about any issues,” leaving as the sting in his eyes starts forcing them to tear up.”

0-0-0-0-0

When Angela takes over from Sweets well after the sun comes up, the psychologist leaves with a promise to come back later, and to text if she needs anything, “Hey, sweetie,” Angela smiles hugging Brennan. The anthropologist tenses despite herself. Angela quickly lets go, “I’m sorry. Fuck i didn’t hurt you, did I?”

Brennan shakes her head, “No, you’re fine, I’m sorry.” She’ll have to work on her reaction to touching.

The awkwardness is broken by a doctor coming in, letting her know that she should be okay to go home that night, there was nothing that looked to have long term problems, she’s have to do physical therapy for her hands, and most likely would need someone to stay with her as her hands wouldn’t be able to be used for at least a week, he also tells her he’s going to prescribe meal replacement shakes to help her regain the weight she lost.

When he leaves the hospital delivers breakfast, Brennan feels nausea overcome her as she sees that at least one of the foods is oatmeal, it sends her back to the room. She takes a deep breath trying to not worry Angela.

She takes the cup of juice first, that’d be okay. Angela is staring at her, tapping her foot far too fast, “How’s the baby?” she looks at the rest of the food, it’s all in cups, to help her with her minimal hand movement

“He’s been a monster; he hasn’t been happy about the late hours. But he’s happy to be back with his aunt Bren.”

“Late hours?” Brennan asks, slowly eating some of the cottage cheese and fruit, carefully avoiding the apples.

Angela shakes her head, “Doesn’t matter,” she looks down, “All that matters is you’re back and safe.”

Brennan bites her tongue to not say she wasn’t important enough to have those type of hours, she turns to the oatmeal, she won’t let everything make her avoid illogical items. Immediately she feels the rest of the food coming up, she grabs a vomit bag, spitting it up and most the rest of her food. Angela stands to help her friend, pulling back the little remaining hair that falls into Brennan’s face, moving to rub her back, stopping just before she does as she remembers the injuries.

After she’s done she takes a small drink of water, shaking just a bit as her body tries to decide if it’s in danger again. She feels herself getting panicky, “Ange, I’m tired, could you come back later?”

Angela nods more quickly than she’d like to admit, seeing her friend in this shape is difficult, and she was always one to take the easiest path.

When Angela leaves Brennan turns on the TV, ignoring what’s on just letting the noise keep her here and now as she slowly drifts off.

0-0-0-0-0

The others all offer but Brennan was careful to only accept Cam’s, though something felt weird about Booth not forcing his way to be the one returning her home.

The ride home is quiet, “How’s Michelle?” Brennan is tired of everyone’s attention on her.

“Good,” Cam smiles, “On a class trip up to New York.” She looks at the anthropologist, studying her, “Max or Russ called you yet?”

“My father has… he’s wanting to come stay with me.”

Cam sees Brennan being suffocated by her family being around, honestly she’d feel the same. 

“I get that he’s worried but I just…” Brennan sighs.

They pull up to her apartment, Brennan realizes her car was probably still at the Jeffersonian.

She doesn’t comment about Cam following her to her apartment, leaving the door open to let her follow her in. 

She looks around, after almost a month it’s surreal to be back. “I made sure your phone and wallet and all that were returned here,” Cam motions to the items laid on the living room table.

Brennan just wants out of these clothes, the borrowed scrubs feel too much like the clothes they had forced her to wear. Without thinking she checks the drawer that has one of her guns. Cam notices this, “I can stay, Dr. Brennan.” 

Brennan snaps her head away from the gun back to her boss, closing the drawer quickly.

“If you want I can stay.”

Brennan wants to say no, she’s an adult and shouldn’t need people to stay. But then she looks at her hands, knowing that’s an excuse to say yes, purely logical and not a babysitter. And any of the others will be more overbearing than Cam.

“I…if you want, I’d appreciate that, Dr. Saroyan.”

Cam nods once, “Of course Brennan.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the long wait, I managed to get myself covid so writing was the last thing I was thinking about. However I am curious if y'all would prefer me to set up a schedule for posting chapters or continue posting as I get them done?

There’s a knock on the door at nearly 3am. Cam groans waking from her sleep in the guest room. The clicking from Brennan’s scooter, she must’ve heard it. She rubs her eyes and decides to get up, 3am can’t be good news.

“Booth?” Brennan hasn’t opened the door all the way, but Cam, standing at the end of the hall, can see the agent isn’t in good shape.

“Let me come in Bones,” he slurs.

“You’re drunk, and it’s late. Go home to Hannah.”

“I love you Bones.”

Brennan physically flinches at the words, “I already told you, Booth I don’t… we can’t… you told me you loved Hannah.” she trails off.

He takes this as an opportunity to kiss her, “No, I don’t,” Brennan all but falls back, hissing when her back hits the back of the couch.

Cam figures this would be a fine time step in if she wants to sleep. “Seeley, it’s late, what are you doing here?” She crosses her arms, watching her old friend lean on the doorframe to stop from swaying.

“What are you doing here Camille?” He responds angrily.

He’s fidgeting in a way she all too easily recognizes, “Have you been gambling Booth?”

“Not your business.” He growls

“Go home Booth.”

“But-“

“Go home, til you’re sober.”

She knows she should be more worried about Booth than she is but she knows he’ll get home well enough, and she can hear Brennan’s attempts to keep her breathing calm which after the last few weeks is definitely her bigger concern. She closes the door on the agent.

She turns to the anthropologist, Brennan’s eyes are wide as she breathes quickly, Cam’s brain quickly jumps to a panic attack. She takes a step towards her friend only for her to step back again, running into the couch again.

“Brennan,” She freezes not coming closer, “How can I help?”

“I’m fine,” Brennan says quickly shaking her head.

“Okay,” Cam nods, “Okay, how about we both sit down then, looks like you hurt your back.”

Brennan nods though instead of moving to sit on the couch she sits as quickly as she can with her leg in a cast, back against the couch. Still breathing heavily. Cam shrugs before sitting down too, “Dr. Brennan is it okay if I get closer?”

Brennan shakes her head firmly, “Please don’t.”

“Okay,” Cam nods, “Is it okay if I go get some replacement bandages then? You’re stretching yours out at it’ll be best to do tonight.”

“That’s logical,” Brennan nods.

“Okay,” Cam leaves figuring the quicker she has something she can do the sooner everything will be better, if even a little.

Even after she returned it had taken over twenty minutes before Brennan had calmed down enough to allow Cam to help her to the couch.

Even after that Brennan took several minutes to give her hand out. After being a cop for a decade and a doctor and pathologist for many more, it’s hard to make Cam shaken from a injury. However when the puncture wound is in front of her eyes harden, tightening her grip slightly without meaning to.

Brennan pulls back with a slight hiss, hiding the cut from Cam. “I’m sorry Dr. Saroyan.”

If you had told her a month ago she’d hate hearing Dr. Brennan and her ego, justified it may be, apologizing, she would’ve laughed, “What? No, I should be more careful.” The anthropologist raises her eyebrow, studying her like her bones, Cam clears her throat, “Reading a medical reports is different than seeing it.”

“To my understanding the chart was very thorough.” Brennan looks down knowing how weak, broken, those records show her as, and that’s not even the worst thing she had rolled over and let them do.

“It’s…” Cam sighs, “You’re my friend, that’s the difference.” The lab may be Brennan’s people, but she’s the boss, in some way it’s her job to keep everyone safe. She couldn’t help at all when they were looking for Dr. Brennan. That guilt would weigh on her for at least the foreseeable future Cam had come to accept, the wounds just confirmed it, “I’m sorry,” she adds quickly for letting the guilt overwhelm her.

Brennan hesitantly offers the hand back, Cam is about half done when she thinks she hears Brennan talking, she looks up, only for Brennan to repeat herself, “Pen knives.”

“What?” Cam asks stopping midwrap

“He put pen knives through my hand into the floor, that’s…” she looks down, offering her boss the other hand, “to stop me moving.”

“Fucking bastards,” Cam can’t stop herself from growling. Without thinking she rests her hand under the deep bruises around the anthropologist’s wrist as she starts on the other hand.

“Handcuffs.”

Cam gives the mark a soft rub, careful to not hurt her further, “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, Brennan, this was obviously beyond a lot and it’s totally okay for you to keep some private for now or forever.”

“They liked to put this revolver to my head, and he’d shoot it, somehow it was always an empty. chamber by the end I honestly didn’t care. I almost wanted him to get the right chamber,” The last sentence was barely audible.

“I’m glad they didn’t,” Cam replies softly, carefully removing the bandages from her back and chest. She closes her eyes squeezing them shut before opening them again letting them harden, she does her best not to study it but it’s far too easy to do, bruises and deep gashes from a whip of some sort, little round burns that look like electrical, and probably the worst part is a deep set of cuts into the anthropologist’s lower back spelling out ALONE, Cam frowns but notices Brennan doesn’t share the actions behind these wounds, so she doesn’t say anything. She very quickly and securely wraps the wounds back up.

Any illusions about how easy this would be fled from the pathologist’s mind, the best in the world were beyond too slow to help their friend and now they’ll hopefully be good enough to help her.


End file.
